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What's for Dinner #206 - Inching towards a Warm Spring edition [OLD]

So, we're getting there. There's still some wind; there's still some chilly-willyness, but we're all like a little green inchworm on a stick - moving ever so slowly towards the goal. Which is? Warmth, sun, little green shoots coming out of the ground to blossom into flowers, buds on the trees.....SPRING!

I pulled some wild yard onions out of my front yard the other night and added them raw to some buttery mashed potatoes and they were wonderful! The flavor was a mixture of garlic/onion and they were extremely spicy, but much more muted after the hot mashed potatoes softened them slightly.

I can't believe that more people don't use common green onions from the yard to cook with! I thought they were weeds till a few days ago and just mowed them down. They are a little bit more fibrous than store bought green onions, but not overly so. Go out to your yard and give them a try though and save a lot of money this spring and summer!!!

Last year, I discovered that the bottom edge (root) of the bulb of the green onion can be replanted to grow a new one. Who would of thought? (alright, maybe many of you knew, but I didn't). Takes a while, but why not???

I live in Alabama, and they grow randomly in the yard on their own. I would've thought that anywhere that grass can grow well that wild yard onions would grow. Need me to find a picture of what I'm talking about? I figure there might be a lot of varieties of them. Maybe try googling Alabama onions and seeing if that variety grows wherever you live! I hope so, they are delicious.

I guess that is the great thing about living in the country away from neighbors or anything. There is no one around to get runoff from, and even still our house is on a huge hill so if we are getting pesticides then they are getting crop dusted on by a bi-plane. :)

I find this fascinating because as a life long New Englander I have never seen anything growing wild on anyone's lawn worth eating, unless you like dandelion greens and I hate them. Once on a camping trip on an island in Maine I found wild chives but I think they were left from a former homestead on the property.

I don't use the onions from my lawn as I live in a townhouse community where they spray the weeds. However, I have a garden plot and there is a gigantic field nearby that is not sprayed with any chemicals - I harvest onions and dandelions from there frequently. Not to mention lots of mulberries in the summer.

I have been having dandelions in many dishes these days - since I don't spray my yard, I on-purpose let the dandelions go for a bit in spring (just pull off the flowers so no re-seeding), so I can have dandelion greens at least through April, then dig them up.

This evening, we lit up the grill late after an afternoon of tilling & planting etc. in the garden; cooked chicken and ribs. I partially cooked some potatoes on the stovetop then finished them on the grill, first drizzling them in olive oil and seasoned with a steakhouse onion seasoning and pepper blend. Nice smoky flavor and crispy edges on those. Baked beans seasoned with bacon and molasses as the second side. Leftovers tomorrow...

Another yummy salad by the BF, this one Cobb-like: grilled chicken breast, moist as can be, with greens, cukes, hard-boiled egg whites, avocados, bacon, and scallions. then he took dijon/red wine vinegar/olive oil and mixed that with blue cheese sprinkles and crumbled egg yolks to make a creamy dressing. really good!

MC you are lucky that you have a boyfriend who knows his way around a kitchen...there are some nights that I would love to be cooked for instead of being the one who cooks! Don't get me wrong, I thrive on cooking and my true habitat is my kitchen but on some nights it's nice to have dinner - a yummy one at that - prepared for me.

thanks lf! i am really lucky, don't i know it. i do love it, but i too wish i could come home and cook some during the week, but he's too hungry by the time i get there to wait for that. and i can't complain about what he comes up with!

Haha...you have quite the sense of humor, suzigirl! I am sure your BF realizes how fortunate that he has a girl who not only wants to cook for him - but one that knows how to cook up some great gourmet dishes!!

He loves my cooking. And his Co workers ask every day what he has for lunch because their wives don't make them a lunch. How sad, they could save a ton. I love a man that can appreciate that he gets home cooking

thanks everyone! no, no brining, he just quickly seared the breast (skin on) and then put them in the oven to finish. i ended up getting home very late so they sat for a good long time. they were sooooo tender!

Interesting Linda...my tummy cannot tolerate avocados at all. This is a shame because I realize how good they are health-wise, although to be quite honest I never did acquire a love for the taste of avocados.

Do you know what temp and how long? I just ask as I love chicken and it usually comes out great but sometimes it's a dry dessert but that's probably me just not paying attention to the oven. That looks yummy! The dressing looks amazing too and I think I might give that a try as I'm on the hunt for a new vinaigrette, 3:1 oil:vinegar + some dijon?

oh, and my own go-to vinaigrette is dijon-based as well: 1 minced whole smallish shallot, blend with the juice of 2 lemons, s&p to taste, add a tsp. or so of dijon, and then the extra virgin olive oil, whisk until it all comes together. so nice and tart.

My mother 's cousin was in WW2 and married a Frenchwoman who was able to make good food with whatever was available in Arizona in the fifties- so French! Her salad dressing was a hard cooked yolk mashed to a paste with yellow mustard in the bottom of a salad bowl. Then she would wisk in vinegar and finally oil to an emulsion. Then in went the salad greens and it was tossed and served. So good!

This "inching towards a warm spring" lark? Not here on our small cold island off the coast of northern Europe. Temperatures linger at around 5. And that's before any wind chill consideration. Of which there has to be much consideration!

For dinner, quickly fried pigeon breasts. I bought these locally shot ones at the farmers market ages back and they got lost in the freezer. Shouldnt need much more than a couple of minutes in a hot pan with some rapeseed oil and thyme. We'll have them with small new potatoes and steamed sugarsnap peas. A "make it up as I go along" sauce will be based on a glass of red wine being reduced with more thyme and a few crushed juniper berries.

I've eaten squab several times in Europe not even knowing what it was! Once I found out, I'm kind of like "eh, good use for a seemingly useless creature". But I would never have ordered it at first had I known ;)